Initial impacts of the Asian currency crisis on local SMEs with import & export activities : July 97 to June 98

Abstract

We hypothesised that the currency crisis might have affected the local SMEs through the crisis’s effects on three variables: forex fluctuation, increase in interest rates, and economic slowdown. Secondary to testing the above hypotheses, we seek to assess whether the extent of the SMEs’ reaction to three variables is significantly differently the SMEs’ perception of the severity of the three variables’ impact on their business